Three staff a week quit National Policing Improvement Agency

More than three employees per week have walked out of the National Policing Improvement Agency since its launch six months ago, Personnel Today has learned.

Figures released under a Freedom of Information request show that 80 permanent members of staff resigned from the new agency, set up to deliver police training and technology, between 1 April and 31 August 2007.

More than 100 agency staff and 35 seconded police officers or civil servants also quit their posts, according to the data.

Thirteen of the agency staff and three permanent employees who left worked in the human resources department.

Just 38 permanent posts have been recruited to the new policing body since its inception, of which there are approximately 2,000 staff positions.

The NPIA was created in April by merging together existing policing bodies including the Police IT Organisation and training body Centrex to provide a more efficient service to all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

However, despite measures to make the agency more efficient, the NPIA confirmed there is “no established authorised headcount in place” for either permanent or agency staff, some of which earn up to £1,000 per day.

It also emerged that staff transferred across from the precursor organisations to the new body did not get new job descriptions, yet some are in completely new team structures with new business heads.